Super Baby Food

More like "Super Crazy Lady". Melanie recommended this book to me with a very serious disclaimer that the author was crazy. And she is. And I love it.

Super Baby Foods, by Ruth Yaron, is a book on how to feed your baby and toddler, with recipes for making your own baby food (something I am attempting to do for Frankie). When I reserved this book from the library, I was expecting more of a cookbook -- instead I was handed a 550 page text book.

Alas, this book, like the Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child book I reviewed earlier, forgot the all important editing process. In the list of Choking Hazards on page 40, it actually reads:

• hard candy
• chewy candy
• gum
• jelly beans
• lollipops that may come off the stick
• all candy
• wrappers from candy

Because "gum" is different than "chewy candy", and "lollipops" are different than "hard candy". It's like she got to the end of the list and said "Oh, jeez, there are just so many candies to list, I better put "all candy" down. And then to be extra-safe, I remind them not to hand their baby the wrappers from the candy they're not supposed to give them", and forgot to go back and edit the list to remove the other candy items that are now covered under "All candy".

Amidst recipes and instructions on feeding your toddler are tips for emptying your dishwasher, "money-saving hints" like buying produce when it's ripe and on sale, or this one:
"Don't actually buy the "storage bags" instead of the "freezer bags". The packages look very similar and I once grabbed the storage type by accident when I was in a hurry and didn't read the box carefully."

So you're getting the idea why this book is 550 pages long.

Untamed inner monologues aside, this text was particularly shocking for me:
"Remember to keep your facial expression pleasant when you are changing your baby's diaper. (With some poops, this may be a real challenge!) He will notice any look of disgust on your face, which may teach him that his private parts are repulsive and lead him to believe that sex is "dirty" when he gets older."

Seriously? People still believe this Freudian nonsense? Aside from being ridiculous and perpetuating the false notion of a "perfect mother" who is responsible for any neurosis her adult child might have from one slip-up on her part, what is this doing in a book on how to make my infant's food?

All in all, I've enjoyed bits of the untamed inner monologue, which are fairly easy to skip over, it was fascinating to find out that people still believe Freud, and she actually has a lot of good information about feeding my infant, and how to make food for her. So good in fact, that I'm going to buy the book (the copy I have has been checked out from the library).

And now, for a tip of my own. I bought a hand-held immersion blender (by Oster, from Target, for $20), and it's the perfect tool for the job. I have a food processor too, but it just didn't get the food fine enough. Mel, I didn't even have to strain the fiber from the sweet potato I just made for Frankie. It's much easier to clean up too than my food processor.